Is Polarization Picking Up Speed?

Santorum looks like he's going to have a big win in Michigan, and Romney is being forced to spout faith-based insanities in an effort to survive (as is Obama).

If Santorum is finally the agreed upon representative of the lunatic right, the Republicans are going to find that they've got a clear and angry split in the Party, with only one damaged winner coming out of the convention, and it won't necessarily be Romney.

While I think the Republican Party will lose the election, I think the cultural divide in the US might equal the Vietnam era. Will this year be the high-water mark of the "social conservatives?" Predictions anyone?

"It was actually, pre-Reagan, post-Nixon, …mostly as a result of the Nixon administration being brought down...."

The history I read said that before Reagan an unnamed Repub noted the similarities of thought between conservatives and fundamentalists. At this time (1974) I was a moderate Repub seeking election to the Arizona legislature, and was paying attention.

Backtracking further...

The need to bring in more people arose after the party's Western conservatives nominated Goldwater and told Eastern moderates to leave. With the Dems enacting civil rights for blacks, and the Repubs needing to replace the moderates, southern Dems became Repubs and brought their racism into the party.

During Eisenhower's presidency the John Birch Society so disliked his moderation that they said he was a communist, which widened the split in the party.

One history says Dewey's defeat in 1948 discredited Eastern moderates and began the split.

"The history I read said that before Reagan an unnamed Repub noted the similarities of thought between conservatives and fundamentalists."

Right-wing authoritarianism, …yes this is well documented.

The need to bring in more people arose after the party's Western conservatives nominated Goldwater and told Eastern moderates to leave. With the Dems enacting civil rights for blacks, and the Repubs needing to replace the moderates, southern Dems became Repubs and brought their racism into the party.

For more connect the dots, one of the John Birch Society's founders was Fred Koch, name ring a bell? Charles and David Koch are his sons. They were in the news recently with their latest democracy buying scheme

Another small indication of polarization, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, of Maine, will not seek re-election. One of the last moderate Republicans has been effectively chased off by the new Republican (standards?). What's the word I'm looking for?

Just a few hours before the Michigan primary ends. That will be interesting.

It's over and Romney won Michigan - barely. I think it might be a best case scenario for us.

If Santorum had won, it would've been a show of strength by the fruitcakes. The party leadership might have been motivated to find some fresh face, one that might actually have the mob appeal to win in November.

I like the present crop of losers. Let them battle it out with increasingly insane rhetoric, pandering to the real 'mericans in the South. The more desperate and hateful they get, the fewer Republicans will be elected in November.

"By some measures, Snowe is the Senate's most liberal Republican and Ben Nelson of Nebraska is its most conservative Democrat. Both are retiring this year, raising serious possibilities they will be replaced by less moderate members of the opposite party, further widening the chamber's partisan divide."